My partner accused me of being biased against catholics because of one of my posts, so in the interest of fairness.......

Religion simplified

In man’s beginning, we had to explain unexplainable events, like thunder storms, earthquakes, and such, within the context of our known environment at the time. In order to make sense of these violent and horrific events, and having no knowledge of science, mankind created super beings (gods) who were responsible. These events were so horrible that early man could only say that they were being punished for some arbitrary bad behaviour and therefore had to do something to appease the angry gods. Thus the first sacrifices to calm nature came to be.

It probably began with some tribal chieftain who lusted after a young woman/man and was spurned by her/him or her/his father. The chieftain then declared that the gods were angry and demanded blood as proof of the tribe’s devotion.  If the chieftain could not have this girl/boy, then the only one who could would be the gods. Religion was born.

Man soon realised that the easiest way to control other humans, was to scare them with threats of fire and eternal torment in some sort of hell if they did not conform to the way the controllers wanted them to act.  Those that did not conform were summarily destroyed in order to preserve tribal peace.  This was good and bad at the time as it did manage to keep some sort of order in early society, but at the same time, it killed new ideas and thoughts that might have created an even better society.

Man continued to evolve and think of their environment in different ways. By promising everlasting rewards in heaven after death for obedience to the rules, religion tried to counter these new ideas. During medieval times man tried to look at nature in a more clinical way in order to understand their environment. Men began to question the established religious doctrine and how it affected man’s view of the natural world. Scientists, or thinking men, were born and eventually killed for threatening the established way of life as seen by the ruling religion. Every time that someone came along that showed a new way of seeing things that threatened control over the masses, society claimed them as dangerous offenders and had them executed (sort of like what Stephen Harper has planned for Canada).

Man’s new religions quickly became popular with both the ruling class and the ordinary citizen: it gave one security (heaven), punished the disagreeable neighbour (hell), and absolved one of wrong doing because they committed the act in the name of some god (muslim, jewish, christian, hindu, etc.).  Every horrible, despicable deed done in the name of some god or prophet could suddenly be excused because it was his/her/their wish. What a perfect construct; man could now do exactly as he wished, and be forgiven (christian) or praised (muslim), for whatever monstrosity they decided to bring down on their fellow man. No wonder religion is so popular; you can lie, cheat, kill, maim, destroy, all in the name of Christ, Allah, Krishna, God, or whatever deity is handy, and you can get away with it with no fear of celestial punishment because god wills it or forgives it.

Today, religions only exist to self-justify their hatred of all other religions. All religions preach love but none of them actually demonstrate it. Jews massacre Palestinians, muslims blow up the infidels wherever they want to, and christians, well christianity is the most dishonest of all religions: instead of following the words of its founder, it fosters intolerance and hate wherever it happens to go. Obviously the word christian comes from Christ, and according to the book “The bible”, he was a caring, tolerant, and forgiving person. Whatever happened to that? In North America, the Christian religion has become synonymous with intolerance. There is more intolerance and hate committed in the name of Christ, on a daily basis, than any other reason.

Religion was created to control mankind, to make them follow someone’s wishes, to make them docile. Religion has done the opposite; it has released mankind’s natural fear of bloodshed, and made it thirsty for more. All of the present day conflicts are caused by some religious belief. But it is okay because God wills it!